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Friday, February 1, 2013

Carrot Cake Bread

Hello February! I love this month for so many reasons.

Superbowl is this upcoming weekend. I absolutely love the entertaining side of Superbowl, the fantastic foods, half-time show and the funny commercials. Plus, the main reason is because my birthday is in a week and we sorta celebrate it all month long. I'm really looking forward to my mom coming up and spending some time with Elena and us.

More importantly, grandma is babysitting so Eric and I can have a date night out for my birthday. Last month we had our first date night out without Elena, and it was probably harder for me than Elena. It took forever to get Elena to be trained on the bottle because she was a breastfed baby. I have slowly weaned her completely on the bottle, but this mama isn't ready to give up nursing Elena just yet. I haven't had any problems being pregnant and nursing, but it's time to give my body a break before cupcake arrives. He will need his milk supply, too!

I had made this scrumptious dessert because I was cleaning out my produce drawer. I hate when I don't use all my vegetables and they go bad, it's such a bad habit that I buy too much produce. Plus, I had some leftover cream cheese frosting that I didn't want to toss either. So I took a quick look at my ZipList Recipe Box app and found this perfect recipe. Eric absolutely loves carrot cake, so I knew that this would be a sweet treat to enjoy and he had plenty to share because he brought a tray to work for everyone to enjoy. Definitely a great quick bread to prepare for breakfast or dessert that tastes like carrot cake without the fuss.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8x4 loaf pans or four 5x3 mini loaf pans.

In the bowl of the stand mixer, beat the eggs. Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients 1/3 at a time into the wet ingredients. Gently fold in the carrots, pineapple, raisins, walnuts, and shredded coconut.

Divide batter into the prepared loaf pans. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the bread for at least 10 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Prepare the cream cheese frosting. Place cream cheese in the bowl of the stand mixer. Beat the cream cheese for 1 minute until is soft and workable. Add the butter and mix until combined on medium-low speed, scraping sides as needed. Add the salt, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat on low until incorporated. Frost cooled breads with frosting. Garnish with freshly grated carrots if desired.

Elena News: We visited the doctor this week for her 9 month check-up, and our next appointment is when she's 12 months = a freaked out mama! Her height and weight are above average, and I'm struggling to carry her 21 pounds at times! But she's growing great and keeps herself entertained with the silliest of things. She chose to play with her diaper box that I was using to store her toys. She chose to dump all the toys, and play only with the box not her toys. She loves to climb up on things, or pull herself up on our legs and stand for periods of time. We might have a walker sometime in the next month or so, and then the real trouble begins...baby proofing the entire house!